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Managed Areas: All managed lands with a conservation purpose (GAP status <= 3) are shown, along with other large state or federally managed lands greater than 250 acres with GAP status 4.

This data layer was used in the matrix forest condition and prioritization analysis. It was also used to generate managed area statistics for the entire ecoregion and final portfolio. It is a compilation of various state, federal, municipal, and privately-owned managed area source datasets at a variety of scales. The dataset was created in 2002.

Definitions of GAP status levels (after Crist, P.J., B. Thompson, T. C. Edwards, C. G. Homer, S. D. Bassett. 1998. Mapping and Categorizing Land Stewardship. A Handbook for Conducting Gap Analysis (http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap/AboutGAP/Handbook/Index.htm):

Status 1: An area having permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover and a mandated management plan in operation to maintain a natural state within which disturbance events (of natural type, frequency, intensity, and legacy) are allowed to proceed without interference or are mimicked through management.

Status 2: An area having permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover and a mandated management plan in operation to maintain a primarily natural state, but which may receive uses or management practices that degrade the quality of existing natural communities, including suppression of natural disturbance.

Status 3: An area having permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover for the majority of the area, but subject to extractive uses of either a broad, low-intensity type (e.g., logging) or localized intense type (e.g., mining). It also confers protection to federally listed endangered and threatened species throughout the area.

Status 4: There are no known public or private institutional mandates or legally recognized easements or deed restrictions held by the managing entity to prevent conversion of natural habitat types to anthropogenic habitat types. The area generally allows conversion to unnatural land cover throughout.